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Last week, we had a kind of international cider exchange, my sister-in-law did some purchasing in Ireland and brought over some Irish craft ciders. On her way back to Ireland, I sent her off with a few British ciders as part exchange. One of the bottles she brought was this – Stonewell Dry Irish Craft Cider made by Nohoval Cidery in County Cork.

Details: 2012, 5.5% alc vol, clear pale yellow. Fizzy . Lovely cheesy on the nose. A dry tannic full bodied flavour.
According to the information on the bottle it’s made from Dabinett, Michelin, Jonagored, Elstar & Falstaff apple varieties. This seems like a nice blend of apples that adds a lot of complexity on the pallet. There is a sort of cheese and honey flavour that is long.

I think this might be one of the best Irish ciders I have drunk. It’s very nice and feels like very well made cider. Good job.

As a passing comment, I quote their sales blurb on the back of the bottle. They use:

“a specially selected natural yeast for fermentation”

So this raises the question in my mind of “what is a natural yeast” and if they wanted to use an “unnatural” one where would they get that from?

I work in a building where there are various genetically modified yeast. These are also specially selected although I can’t imagine anybody using them to make cider. Mmm… what do you think the good people at Nohoval Cidery mean by “specially selected natural yeast”? I don’t mind that much – they make good cider 🙂